Brooklyn’s district attorney is not pursuing charges against the man who shot another man in the head on a crowded New York City subway train on Thursday, according to the office.
“Yesterday’s shooting inside a crowded subway car was shocking and deeply upsetting,” Oren Yaniv, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, said in a statement. “The investigation into this tragic incident is ongoing but, at this stage, evidence of self-defense precludes us from filing any criminal charges against the shooter.”
The harrowing scene played out on a New York City subway car during Thursday-evening rush hour and was captured in videos that have been shared widely online.
Shortly before 5 p.m., two men, ages 32 and 36, got into a fight on a northbound A train in Brooklyn, according to the New York Police Department. Fellow passengers watched as the men punched and grappled with each other, according to video watched by CNN.
In the video, the men are seen stopping after a passenger broke up the fight. The 36-year-old man then removed a gun from his jacket, police said. Passengers fled to the opposite end of the car, with someone shouting “Stop!” and others screaming, “Get down!” as the crowd cowered to the ground, the video shows.
Seconds later, the train doors open at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station near downtown Brooklyn as the two men fight once more. As the frantic passengers flee the car, several shots can be heard.
The 32-year-old disarmed the 36-year-old and shot him in the head with his own gun, according to the NYPD. The 32-year-old was arrested at the scene, and the 36-year-old was taken to a nearby hospital, where he remains in critical condition, a NYPD spokesperson said.
Thursday’s subway violence follows a series of transit crimes across New York City – and just days after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed nearly 1,000 National Guard troops to combat rising lawlessness within the subway system.
When asked about subway crime on Friday, Tarik Sheppard, New York City’s deputy commissioner of public information, said, “While it can be polarizing and it can put people in fear, we understand that but we are keeping a large system and a large amount of people safe.”
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the status of the gunshot victim. He is in critical condition.